It has been known that vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin B, niacin, pantothenic acid, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), vitamin E, and vitamin P have antioxidant action, capillary-recruiting action, blood-pressure-lowering action, capillary-reinforcing action, blood-pressure-lowering action, blood-cholesterol-level-improving action, anti-allergic action, action of maintaining the health of the skin and mucosa, action of maintaining acuity, action of improving metabolism, or skin-whitening action. Because of these functional properties, vitamins are focused on as food additives and have been gradually used in a variety of fields. In the field of cosmetics, there has been an increased preference to natural products with satisfactory safeness, stability, and functions; and there appears a tendency of exploring commercial products in such a manner of applying these substances or compositions containing the same to various products. While retaining the physicochemical properties inherent to the above substances before glycosylation, such as physiological activities and ultraviolet-ray-absorbing actions (throughout the specification, it may be called “functions” as a whole, hereinafter), glycosides of glycosylated vitamins (throughout the specification, they may be called “vitamin glycosides” as a whole, hereinafter), prepared by glycosylating the above-identified vitamins and derivatives thereof (throughout the specification, they may be called “vitamins” as a whole, hereinafter), have a distinctively high water-solubility or stability and have a satisfactory safeness, compared with the above substances before glycosylation. As the form of these vitamin glycosides in use, those which are prepared by positively utilizing their high water-solubility and stability have been mainly proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Kokai Nos. 58790/91, 7593/91, 13691/92, 156299/81, and 182413/92.
In the case of incorporating vitamin glycosides into external dermatological agents in the form of a powder, solid, or solid powder, there is found no proposal of incorporating such vitamin glycosides intact in a powder form, and as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Kokai No. 137734/2003, it is employed a process for producing lipsticks, comprising mixing and emulsifying an oily component and a water phase, containing a glycosyl-hesperidin as a vitamin P glycoside, into a preparation in the form of water in oil. Thus, in the case of incorporating vitamin glycosides into external dermatological agents, aqueous solutions of vitamin glycosides are generally used. As one of the reasons that the vitamin glycosides are not used in a powder form, there is a problem of production quality that such vitamin glycosides are not only hard to be homogeneously dispersed but hard to be prepared into homogeneous products, when mixed intact with other powders before incorporated into external dermatological agents. In the case of using fat-soluble vitamins, they might not be directly prepared into powders. To exert their inherent functions, these vitamins may cause problems of affecting the handling of the resulting cosmetics or deteriorating the makeup with the cosmetics due to water or perspiration because these vitamins may be required for use in a quite larger amount depending on the final products, compared with the case used in the form of a liquid. As an example of a solid external dermatological agent directly incorporated with a relatively small amount of a substance in a powder form, there has been proposed a product incorporated with a powder, as an ultraviolet-absorbing agent, obtained by binding a phenolic compound to a silk powder to enhance the ultraviolet-ray-absorbing effect inherent to the silk powder (cf. Japanese Patent Kokai No. 338,942/2002), however, there still remains a problem of allowing vitamin glycosides to efficiently support on carriers at an adequate concentration to exert their satisfactory functions.
Conventional cosmetics in the form of a powder, solid, or solid powder have the defect that they absorb sebum and cause skin roughness and chapping after applied to the skin. To overcome this problem, many trials have been made in such a manner of incorporating into cosmetic materials a larger amount of oils; polyols such as sugar alcohols including glycerin, xylitol, sorbitol, and polyethylene glycol; and humectants such as amino acids including pyrrolidone carboxylic acid; or emollients such as higher alcohols, higher fatty acids, ester oils, and lanolin. However, the use of any of these may cause a strong sticky feeling and distinctively deteriorate the usability and the makeup durability, resulting in no obtention of satisfactory cosmetics. To overcome these defects, for example, Japanese Patent Kokai No. 40,845/94 proposes a trehalose-containing cosmetic in a solid powder form. However, the above-identified patent literatures never disclose both the possibility of effectively incorporating vitamin glycosides on carriers such as saccharides at a higher concentration and any external dermatological agents incorporated with powders having the above supported glycosides; and they neither disclose nor suggest that the external dermatological agents exhibit the functions of vitamins such as satisfactory ultraviolet-ray absorbability action, anti-inflammatory action, anti-allergic action, skin-whitening action, etc., for a relatively long period of time, compared with mere mixtures of such vitamin glycosides and carriers.
The present invention has a first object to provide a functional powdery product prepared by allowing carriers such as saccharides to support one or more vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin B, niacin, pantothenic acid, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), vitamin E, vitamin P, and derivatives thereof; and has a second object to provide an external dermatological agent which contains the functional powdery product and effectively exerts the functions inherent to the above vitamins.